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The Way: Truth, Hope and Solidarity Against the Empire
By eileen fleming (about the author) Page 1 of 3 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Eileen Fleming - Writer
Sponsored by Friends of Sabeel [Arabic for The Way] in North America/FOSNA: secular peace and justice activists, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Unitarians and others responded to this reporter's inquiry as to why they were there:
"I am a full time Grad student and got involved with Jump Start. I am doing my thesis about the fields being bulldozed in Gaza." -Leigh www.jumpstartinternational.org
"I am seeking the truth and I know the American media hasn't been reporting it."-Louise
"I am a USA taxpayer and want to know where my money is going and for what." -Horace
Among the speakers were Cindy and Craig Corrie, parents of Rachel, the 23 year old peace activist from Olympia, Washington who was crushed underneath a Caterpillar bulldozer in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip nearly four years ago. The entire Corrie family have ever since persistently dedicated their lives to the altruistic Rachel's cause.
It was on March 16, 2003 , that an Israeli soldier driving a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer crushed Rachel, an activist with the NONVIOLENT International Solidarity Movement. Rachel had been nonviolently protesting the demolition of a home she had been living in and which belonged to Samir Nasrallah, a Palestinian pharmacist with five children. On the south west border of the Mediterranean Sea, the village of Rafah is home to 140,000 people, 60% of whom are refugees and who are among the 1.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip: an open air prison, for Israel has consistently maintained total control of air, water and land borders-even after the "Disengagement" in the summer of 2005.
Despite the bright orange vest that Rachel wore, and the fact that she stood 20 meters in front of the bulldozer for hours, the Israeli soldier contended that he did not see her and after crushing her once, he backed up and crushed her again.
Rachel's parents called on the U.S. State Department to conduct an investigation into the details of Rachel's murder. On March 25, 2003, U.S . Representative Brian Baird presented Resolution 111 which called on the U.S. government to "undertake a full, fair, and expeditious investigation into Rachel's death."
Despite Baird's resolution-no U.S. investigation has ever been conducted, the USA government has done nothing at all to hold Israel accountable for its many violations of human rights and international law. Neither has the Caterpillar company been held accountable for its role in aiding and abetting such violations.
But Rachel and her family's activism have left deep footprints in Gaza and into the USA. From the Rachel Corrie Kindergarten and the Rachel Corrie Cultural Center for Children in Rafah to the Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, citizens of the world are building community in the spirit of compassion and with persistent determination that celebrates the dignity of all human life through the pursuit of justice, international law and human rights.
The petite and dynamic secular Jew, journalist, prolific author, Mid East analyst and Co-founder and Co-Chair of the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Dr. Phyllis Bennis stated, "I actually agreed with NY Times columnist, David Brooks the other day. He wrote, 'The US has always exercised as much power as it could' but while he celebrated this fact, I thought about American hegemony and hypocrisy...
"Iran has signed the NPT, which allows them the right to have nuclear power and to enrich uranium. The 185 non-nuclear states have agreed to give up the right to have nuclear weapons and the five nuclear powers that signed the NPT agreed to get rid of their nuclear weapons... Iran is not in violation of the NPT, but America is! The USA has been in violation ever since the day they signed it. The USA is acting like a rogue state. The rhetoric out of Washington, the arresting of Iranian diplomats in Iraq , are deliberate provocations hoping that the Iranians will take the bait and respond...The USA is trying to build a coalition of 'Moderates'-who are the one's we like, which all happen to be monarchies and dictatorships."
The Rev. Donald Wagner, Director of the Center for Mid East Studies and Associate Professor of Biblical Theology and Religion at North Park University addressed the fastest growing cult in the USA ; which is also politically driven and a modern Christian heresy; the cult of Christian Zionism.
"I grew up in west New York in a Christian fundamentalist home steeped in the Christian Zionism theology particular to the Scofield Bible. According to their "meta-narrative" of scripture of Pre-Millennial Dispensation we are now in the last days of history and only those 'born again' will be raptured out of the Lake of Fire . The statehood of Israel in 1948 was their marker to begin their countdown."
Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
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http://www.wearewideawake.org/
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